Female writers - Ecuadorian Literature

Maritza Cino

Maritza Cino Alvear (Guayaquil, 1957) is an Ecuadorian poet and university professor. She has published 8 poetry collections and a collection of 23 short stories entitled “Días frívolos” [Frivolous Days]. Her poems have appeared in Latin American and Spanish magazines, as well as U.S.-based online magazines. In addition, some of her poetry has been translated into English, Italian and French. Her latest poetry collection “El temblor de los huertos” [The Tremor of the Orchards] was published in 2022.

Maria Cecilia Corella

Maria Cecilia Corella Ramírez (Daule, September 9, 1967) is an Ecuadorian writer, poet, and cultural promoter. She has authored five books: “Poesías amatorias,” “Poemas Corellanos,” “La voz de los Daulis,” “Versos caminantes,” and “Daulis.” From 1985 to 2015, she was the editor of La Voz de los Daulis, a literary, historical, and cultural magazine. She hosts a local cultural TV show Viernes de Cultura y literatura on DV Daule Vision. She is presently the president of the Corporación Cultural Daule, whose cultural event, Sofá Cultural, aims to promote Daule’s literature, dance, music, and other local art forms. She is a member of the World Hispanic Union of Writers and the Union of Writers and Artists of Tarija.

Rocío Durán-Barba

Rocío Durán-Barba (Quito, 19??) is an Ecuadorian writer, novelist, poet, essayist, journalist, and painter. She has lived in Paris for many years and writes in both Spanish and French and has authored over 50 books. Her debut novel “París sueño eterno” (1997) was translated into French in 2003 by the renowned translator Claude Couffon as “Ici ou nulle part.” She worked in Paris as a UNESCO consultant and as an advisor for UNESCO to the Ecuadorian Embassy. As a painter, her artwork has been featured in exhibitions in several countries.

Etelvina Carbo Plaza

Etelvina Carbo Plaza (Daule, March 18, 1834 – Lima, March 22, 1902) was an Ecuadorian poet. Her poems were well-regarded by her contemporaries and form part of some national poetry anthologies. A national poetry contest bearing her name is organized by Sociedad Literaria Etelvina Carbo Plaza, a Daule-based literary society founded in 2016 by writer Cecilia Corella Ramírez. This organization is affiliated with the World Academy of Literature, History, Art and Culture (Mexico). An elementary school in the city of Daule also bears the name Etelvina Carbo Plaza. In 2019, Charles J. García Plúas published a biography of her.

Lola Orbe Carrera

Lola Orbe Carrera, born Luz María Dolores Orbe Carrera (Otavalo, March 31, 1920 – Quito, August 16, 2004) was an Ecuadorian writer, poet, teacher, director of schools and colleges in the province of Imbabura. In 1954, UNESCO awarded her a scholarship to Uruguay and Argentina. She wrote poetry, essays, hymns, biographies, among others. She admired and corresponded with the Chilean poet Gabriela Mistral.

Mariana Cristina García S.

Mariana Cristina García Salvador (Quito, June 8, 1955 – Quito, 1985) was an Ecuadorian poet, essayist and journalist. Her poetry works include: “De Alfa a Omega” (1972), “Cantos Transparentes” (1974), “De la voz Innumerable” (1977), “Con la prisa de la vida en las manos” (1983), and “Voces para recordar” (1987, published posthumously). As a journalist, she collaborated with some of the country’s newspapers and magazines in the 1970s and 1980s, including El Comercio and Diario Expreso.

Juliana Espinosa R.

Juliana Espinosa R. (Ibarra, 1986) is an Ecuadorian writer and social communicator. She published a novel “Las manos de Alondra” in 2017.

Nancy Carlín Iglesias

Nancy Carlín Iglesias de Lujano (1938) is an Ecuadorian poet. In 1960, she published a collection of poems titled, “Este paisaje llamado día,” which was published by the Publications Department of the University of Guayaquil. Also in 1960, her poem “División de la nostalgia” was included in the poetry anthology “Espirales Poéticas,” and another poem was published in “Presencia de la mujer ecuatoriana en la poesía,” both compiled and edited by her friend and contemporary Rodrigo Pesántez Rodas.

Mariella Toranzos

Mariella Toranzos Narváez (Guayaquil, January 24, 1988) is an Ecuadorian journalist, poet, and editor. Before becoming the Society editor for the daily newspaper Diario Expreso, she worked at the paper as a news reporter covering politics, and, as the sub-chief of its Guayaquil section, covering cultural topics. She has also written features on contemporary Ecuadorian authors, helping to introduce them to wider audiences. As a poet, she has participated in the Ileana Espinel Poetry Festival as well as other literary events in Guayaquil.

Saranelly de Lamas

Saranelly de Lamas, aka Saranelly Toledo de Lamas (Riobamba, 1933 – Guayaquil, 1992) was a poet, journalist and fiction writer. As a journalist she was the Cultural Correspondent of the newspapers El País and Occidente (Cali, Colombia) and El Tiempo de Bogota (New York, U.S.) and editor of the Art Page of the newspaper El Nacional (Caracas, Vezenuela). Her major works include: “Revenant” (1961), “Crónicas para un lugar desconocido” (1982) “Orfeo y otros cantos,” and “Los peces de jade cantan a la Paz.”

María Luisa Lecaro

María Luisa Lecaro Pinto was an early 20th-century Ecuadorian poet from Guayaquil who wrote under the pseudonym Tatá. In 1927, she came in second place in a poetry contest sponsored by the journal Savia, with Hugo Mayo taking first place. She was the sister of cartoonist and caricaturist Guillermo Lecaro Pinto, known by the pseudonym Lekropín, director of humorous and anticlerical journals in the city of Guayaquil, and to whom she dedicated one of her best-known poems. Her work, which had been ignored for decades, was rediscovered thanks to the poetry anthology “Del Vanguardismo hasta el 50” [From Avant-garde To 1950], published by the Ecuadorian writer and literary critic Rodrigo Pesántez Rodas in 1999.

Martha Lizarzaburu

Martha Lizarzaburu, born Martha Emilia Lizarzaburu Dávila (Quito, June 14, 1940 – January 27, 2019) was an Ecuadorian poet and worked as literature teacher for 29 years at the “24 de Mayo” School in Quito. She published 3 poetry collections: “Aljibe” (1964), “Memorial de la sombra y la ternura” (1973), and “Ataduras para el viento” (1977). Her work was also featured in the poetry anthology “Antología de ocho poetas tanáticas del Ecuador“ (2005) edited by Rodrigo Pesántez Rodas.

Elsy Santillán Flor

Elsy Santillán Flor (Quito, December 23, 1957) is an Ecuadorian poet, fiction writer, playwright, and author of children’s literature. She’s also a lawyer by profession and has worked in Ecuador’s courts. From 1999-2002 she was secretary of Ecuadorian Society of Writers (SEDE). She was the recipient of the Jorge Luis Borges National Prize and the Pablo Palacio Prize. One of her plays received honorable mention at the Joaquín Gallegos Lara Prize in 2011. The majority of her short fiction was collected in “Los miedos juntos” (2009). In 2021, she published her latest work, a horror novel titled “Fantasmagórica aventura del grupo 21” [The Phantasmagorical Adventure of Group 21]. Some of her works have been translated into Hungarian and French.

Yess Padilla

Yess Padilla (Quito, 1975) is an Ecuadorian children’s story author. In 2022, her children’s story “El cuento de la longuita” was published in Spain by Babidibu. She is a computer science engineer focused on marketing, specifically as product manager for online products. She has lived in Barcelona, Spain since 2003.

Susana Costales Terán

Susana Costales Terán (Riobamba, March 24, 1960) is a writer and poet. She has twice served as president of the Association of Contemporary Women Writers of Ecuador, Matriz Chimborazo. She is also a member of the House of Ecuadorian Culture in Chimborazo, President of the musical group Rondalla de Riobamba, President of the Los Superstar Club, and President of the Club Antifaz. Her father was the renowned writer Luis Alberto Costales. She is currently a language and literature teacher at Unidad Educativa Jefferson, a school in the Riobamba canton. She also directs a cultural radio program, gives free public speaking classes, and conducts literary workshops and conferences. She owns and operates Café Libro El Zaguán, a cafe which aims to serve as a cultural meeting spot for poetry, art and music; it holds poetry recitals at the end of each month.